More, Different and Better

…is how the TUC’s new General Secretary, Frances O’Grady, opened Unite’s first ever conference for union learning representatives (ULRs), held in partnership with NIACE and unionlearn. Around 400 ULRs gathered in Congress House against a backdrop of Latin American music played by a Unite-sponsored group of Peruvian musicians before Frances opened the conference with an impassioned speech about the power of learning to transform lives. She described union learning as the ‘most important tool to turn the tide’ and said the Fabian mantra of ‘agitate, educate and organise’ is still as relevant today as it ever was when only 1 in 7 private sector employees  hold union cards and 4 in 10 companies don’t offer any training at all. However, she balanced this fairly grim picture by setting out an impressive list of positive union learning stories from Argos, Gatwick Airport, Southampton City Council and Caterpillar.

The second speaker, Unite’s Director of Lifelong Learning, Jim Mowatt, stressed the importance of measuring the impact of union activity and managing budgets wisely, ‘We may not be businesses but we have to be business-like.’ He told the conference how Unite’s vision included supporting migrant workers with ESOL courses as this made sense for them, their families and their employers. Kenny Baron, Head of Lifelong Learning for Unite, also emphasised the union’s commitment to ESOL learners as they have been disenfranchised from Skills for Life.

My workshop, Making the Case for Maths, attracted 30 participants who played maths games, talked about their own experiences of maths and learned about all the new resources and training soon to be available through ‘Maths4us‘, the big partnership initiative to take action on adult maths. They agreed to champion maths back in their workplaces and agreed that negative attitudes to maths and fear of the subject both need to be challenged. They are a group of people ideally-placed to take this forward; trusted intermediaries many of whom have improved their own skills as adults.

The conference ended with Len McClusky giving regional and national awards to ULRs for their contribution to lifelong learning, ‘Education changes all of us and that’s why it’s a priority – it empowers our members and strengthens our union.’ Delegates were left in no doubt that Unite is totally committed to the learning agenda. Although clearly driven by the top, perhaps the real power lies in the hands of the hundreds of ULRs inside and outside the conference hall who promote and encourage learning in workplaces all over the country. The question for me is, how do we continue to support this growing army of learning advocates in tough times?